WhenStan Van Samang was asked to join in on Song City 2007 a lot of people hadserious questions. Stan himself wasn’t to sure either and some critics toughtis was a weird choice. But after a couple of hours we knew it: Stan would shutall the negativism down.

Hisenthousiasm worked perfectly when he sat down with Kit Hain, BJ Scott, GarlandJeffreys and the others. Stan made it clear these last weeks in various media…Song City 2007 was one of the highlights for him of this fantastic year.(thanks, Stan J)

Andhere it is… Stan’s first album named ‘Welcome home’. Nice detail: ‘Welcomehome’ is the titlesong and was written during the Song City 2007 sessions. Thealbum was produced by Eric Melaerts (one of the guestwriters for a day duringSC 2007).

Onthe album one will find 4 songs which are the result of Song City 2007 : ‘Justa Girl’, ‘Looking for Me’, ‘Welcome Home’ and ‘Poison’.

Hereunder you can listen to fragments from ‘Welcome Home’ (Thanks to TheEntertainment Group, Bert Bieseman and our friends at EMI Belgium, Guus Fluitand Petra Grauwels and ofcourse thanks to Stan himself!!!)

Click on the button of your choice. If you want to hear more, you’ll haveto run to a recordshop nearby or order through the internet.

‘Just a Girl’ : written by Stan Van Samang, Kit Hain and Vincent Pierins

'Looking For Me' : written byStan Van Samang, BJ Scott and Ronald Vanhuffel

'Welcome Home' : written byStan Van Samang, Vincent Pierins and BJ Scott

'Poison' : written by Kit Hain andSacha Skarbek and finished together with Stan at Song City 2007

Jerry Ricks was bornin Philadelphia on May, 22 in the year 1940. He started playing guitar at acoffeehouse where he used to wash dishes. He absorbed the Delta Blues from the30ies and added some personal ‘touch’ to it. He learned and played with some ofthe greats of the blues such as Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee and Lightnin’Hopkins and was known troughout the world as a specialist in accousticbluesmusic. He often played in Europe in the 70ies and 80ies and recordedalbums in Germany, Hongary and many other European countries. In the newmillenium he also performed a lot in Europe.

Jerry Ricks came as aguestwriter to Song City 2007 for one day. Together with his ‘Belgian pal’,Chris Debrakeleer, he wrote and recorded a couple of songs.

In august 2007, someone month after Song City 2007, Jerry had to go to a hospital in Croatia. Somesources mention he had a stroke, others the big ‘C’. Anyway, the fight againstthe illness came to an end on the 10th of december 2007. His death meansanother big loss for the blues-scene. Friends and family will always rememberhim through his beautiful music, which will live on forever.